


Penpals by Skin

by RhythmRose



Category: Gravity Falls, ParaNorman (2012)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gay, I'm soulmate AU trash, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, except not really there's never enough gay, like too much gay, pov switching, super gay, tbh I'm not sure if I should call this kind of soulmate thing 'soulmark' but technically it is??, whatever you can just read it now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-14 21:32:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7191350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhythmRose/pseuds/RhythmRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dipper was just bored one night when it happened. He didn't mean to meet a new person, a person that was his soulmate of all people, while lying on his bed, bored and alone at midnight. But he did. Mostly because he had the stupid new viral song stuck in his head. (( discontinued until further notice ;(( ))</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Conversations Through Skin

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this is my first fic on Ao3 and I'm honestly wondering how this'll turn out.  
> Also this was written and edited at, like, two AM so if anyone catches a mistake please feel free to tell me  
> any suggestions for the story are also very welcome because I wrote this on a whim  
> Thank you and I hope you people enjoy this /o\

Dipper was just bored one night when it happened. He didn't mean to meet a new person, a person that was his soulmate of all people, while lying on his bed, bored and alone at midnight. But he did. Mostly because he had the stupid new viral song stuck in his head.

That night, Mabel was over at Grenda's house for a sleepover, but Dipper decided to stay at the shack because he wasn't as close to the other girl as Mabel was, nor was he interested in going to a sleepover in the first place.

Once he had to go to bed, it was always weird without Mabel because he was used to having her there to talk to before going to sleep, so it took a while longer to fall asleep. But he just wasn't tired now.

By the time it was midnight, he had given up on sleeping and had found a marker, so he decided to crack open the Journal #3 again and see if he could learn more about their newest case, or see if he missed anything while reading the pages before and add notes to it.

But, as expected, he didn't miss anything and ended up the same as when he first went into his room, except now with a pink marker (courtesy of Mabel and Soos stealing all of his other colored markers for whatever they do) still in his hand as he hummed the newest popular song under his breath. He wrote the first lyric on his wrist out of boredom:

**'Hello, it's me'**

He sighed and decided to change into his pajamas when he realized this wasn't going anywhere, and that he should, at least, try to go to sleep.

Halfway into putting a pajama shirt on, he felt a tingle on his wrist. Wondering what it could be, or if it was just a weird patch of shirt fabric, he finished quickly and looked at the spot where he felt it, which was near where he wrote the lyric. He gasped when he saw more words beneath it.

 **'Who are you?** '  
  
Dipper would be lying if he said he didn't have to cover his mouth to stifle a scream. Whether the scream was out of excitement or fear, or both, probably both, he wasn't sure either way.

He looked around the room as if expecting Mabel to be wearing some kind of invisibility cloak and take it off while laughing about how she scared him. But there nothing, he learned as he suddenly felt dumb for walking around the room and waving his arms in the air, expecting to feel something.

So who had just replied to the song lyrics he wrote on his arm? He supposed he should ask, but they asked a question first. He wasn't sure whether to put his actual nickname or not, but wasn't entirely sure what to put without sounding suspicious either, so he wrote:

**'Dipper. Who are _you?'_**

He sat on his bed only to jump up a moment later in anticipation. He paced around his room until he saw the writing appear on his arm a letter at a time. They wrote fairly quickly and actually had neat writing compared to his chicken scratch and constant mistakes.

**'Norman. Why don't you talk to me to my face?'**

Now Dipper was confused. He couldn't do that, why would this thing-Norman, which he assumed was a name for a human-think he could?  
  
**'I don't know how'** was what he decided to say.

 **'Just** **stop... being.. invisible? Stop hiding..'** was the puzzling reply he got back.

**'What are you talking about?'**

**'You're a ghost, right?'**

**'No?'**

There wasn't a reply for a few minutes until, **'Oh.'**

Then there was nothing and Dipper began thinking.

He lived in a world where soulmates existed. But everyone got theirs a different way.

Mabel was lucky because her soulmate just happened to be in Gravity Falls and she found her the first summer they came here. Mabel's soulmark was on her wrist, and it was what her soulmate would say to her the first time they met.

Her soulmate was named Pacifica Northwest and Dipper hated her. But he put up with her because Mabel loved her, both because she was supposed to and she actually did.

But he wondered if this was his soulmate and why they asked if he was a ghost.  
  
Dipper quickly ran downstairs and into the lab Grunkle Ford had. In his rush, he bumped into a metal cabinet and nearly knocked something that looked way too important for him not to worry about breaking down, at the same time not feeling the tingle on his upper arm.

This woke up his grunkle who was previously asleep on a chair in front of a desk with a lot of blueprints on it. Dipper was rubbing his forehead as he watched Ford jump up in surprise. "Dipper! What is it? Did something happen?" he fretted then ran over to whisper the next part, "Is Bill back?"

The sixteen-year-old shook his head with a small smile, "No, don't worry, it's nothing bad Grunkle Ford. I just wanted to ask you about soulmates."

"For the last time, Dipper, I'm not going to tell you who my soulmate is. It's nothing personal, but-" "-It's not about _your_ soulmate, it's about _mine._ " Dipper cut him off, watching as the older one sat in his chair again.

"Oh. What about it, Dipper?" Ford asked as the one in question propped himself up onto the desk and glanced at the blueprints, seeing it was a design for a portal.

There was a note at the top of one blueprint that read _'To find dimension C-137'._  
Huh. He wondered what that meant, but he decided he would ask later. He still  
wanted to find out about the conversation he just had through writing on his arm.

"I think I found out my 'soulmark' but I'm not sure yet."

"Well, what is it?" Ford eyed Dipper's open skin as if looking for a new mark, and then that's when he saw the conversation that led up from Dipper's wrist to just above his elbow. He requested to look at his arm closer, which Dipper obvious complied to, and read through all of it.

"I just wrote a song lyric on my wrist and got a reply back. No one's in the room and they thought I was a ghost. Is this some form of soulmark?" Dipper inquired as his grunkle finished up the conversation. He looked up to the boy on the desk and nodded.

"This kind of soulmark is where if you mark your skin, your soulmate can see the marks and vice versa. So you just had a conversation with your soulmate for the first time." Ford confirmed, looking the young boy who was a bit dumbfounded.

So many questions. So many questions that he could only ask his soulmate with time.

"Thanks, Grunkle Ford," Dipper said, hopping off the desk and beginning to walk out of the lab.

"No problem, Dipper. By the way, telling them where you live is a nice place to start. The sooner you meet them the better," Ford replied, vaguely gesturing towards Dipper's arm before waving.  
He glanced at his arm as he walked out, realizing there were two new markings there.

**'Where are you then?**  
**Hello?'**

He ran up to his bedroom (though walked on the stairs as to not wake his other grunkle) and grabbed the marker once again, lifting his left arm up and replying:  
**'Probably not where you are.'** before being reminded of what Ford had said. This was his soulmate, after all.

**'Gravity Falls.'**

For a minute (Dipper counted the seconds out of anticipation) there was nothing until he saw the letters appear one by one once again.  
**'I'm going there for vacation in a week or something.'**

Dipper stared at the words and realized. He was going to meet his soulmate. He was going to meet his soulmate in (about) a week.

He wasn't going to scream into his pillow (a habit he had gotten from Mabel) but was going to sit on the bed calmly and chill out.

Except not really.

He proceeded to scream into his pillow.

A few minutes later, he took a few deep breaths and wrote, **'Awesome. I'm going to sleep now, so I'll write more tomorrow.'**

He saw the reply of **'Okay, good night.'** before getting up to turn off the lights and go to sleep. He also threw the marker onto (what area of the room he assumed) was his desk.

It was too late-early? He really should've been asleep earlier-for this. He sighed and finally went to sleep an hour after staring up at the ceiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sad because I made Dipper's words pink in the original but I couldn't figure out how to color them on here whoops  
> and it's kind of a small chapter but I'm proud of it  
> but on another note  
> so did anyone get the ridiculous Rick and Morty reference I put in--


	2. What is Gravity Falls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Norman does a lot of thinking one night and then finds out a bit more about Gravity Falls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only the first paragraph is in Dipper's POV! Then the spotlight is all on Norman.

After about four days of talking through soulmarking, Dipper was told that Norman wouldn't come for another week because of flight delays, which he frowned at when he read it on his hand. He realized how much he was anticipating meeting his soulmate, who, as he found out because there was no way he wasn't going to ask, saw ghosts. Apparently, they were really hesitant to tell him because they didn't want him to think he was weird before even meeting up. Of course, Dipper thought the exact opposite and asked them way too many questions about their ability. 

It seemed that Norman was disappointed about the flight delays too since he wanted to see all the craziness of Gravity Falls that Dipper was telling him about. Norman wasn't sure if he wanted to believe this since his parents insisted that it was such a calm town in Oregon. The tales might have sounded exaggerated but Dipper swore on everything that he was only being legitimate. 

On the first night of this soulmarking scenario, Norman did a lot of thinking. 

Norman didn't have a hard time believing him, though--really, why would he? Seeing ghosts wasn't exactly something everyone did. He was used to weird stuff. 

But he did have to admit that the fact he and his new... person, he wasn't sure if he wanted to call him a friend just yet, were communicating through writing on skin. When they were definitely not in the same place _at all._ He wondered if Dipper was lying about where they live, but he doubted it. 

He also got the feeling this was his soulmate. Soulmarks were nothing new, everyone had one. For example, his parents knew they were for each other because they had the first thing they would say to each other written on their arm. For Courtney, she had a tattoo of half of a heart on her wrist, and the moment she met her soulmate the heart would complete. 

Norman had never met someone with his kind of soulmark before, but he had heard of it. One soulmate writes on their skin and the other can see it and vice versa. For a while, he was scared he didn't even have a soulmark, which meant he had no soulmate. As much as he liked being alone, he did _not_ want to be alone for _that long._

He shook his head and sat up on his bed, reading over the conversation again. He wondered if they knew that they were soulmates. He wondered if, when they met, they would end up hating him so much that they just went to find another soul. He had heard cases of that before, the world apparently screwing up and pairing someone up with someone that hated them. It scared him. His soulmate sounded interesting and he wanted to get to know them better. And he only had a week or two to prepare. He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. 

Another question running through his mind was their gender. Their name sounded more like a nickname than their actual name, and it didn't really give off any gender hints. If he was going by boy-girl stereotypes, they didn't talk enough for him for him to really make any decisions on that (aside from the pink marker they wrote in, which got him leaning towards girl). 

Now, he wasn't worried about that because of his sexuality, he was bisexual through and through (how he found out is a story for another day), but more his parents. Specifically, his father and how he didn't want their name ruined. Which Norman thought was ridiculous. Not dating a person of the opposite gender would mean the end of the world, oh no. Just watch me... _If my soulmate is a boy, anyway._

If Dipper was a boy, things would be a little more complicated, though he was still fine with it. If they were a girl, things would be less complicated and he would still be fine with it. 

Norman finally stopped his train of thought when things started getting fuzzy. He got up and went to the bathroom to wash all the writing off of his arms before going back to bede and attempting to fall asleep. He finally knocked out after an hour of shifting around.

____________________________________________

Norman woke up to the _oh, so_ pleasant sound of his older sister screaming. _'This is gonna be interesting. What is it, like, four in the morning?'_

It was actually ten, and he knew he wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon. He sighed and sat up, stretching and looking around his room. _'I'm really just a teenager,'_ he thought as he looked at all the zombie posters and such decorating his walls. 

He got up and looked out his open door just in time to see Courtney mad dash down the halls. Curious, he quickly followed behind to the kitchen. 

Even without seeing her face, Norman knew she was angry--a hand on her hip, shoulders tense, a foot just barely tapping on the floor.

"...Yes?" their mother spoke, and that's when Courtney started. Norman went to stand by her side and saw her holding a brochure, opened to a page with some weird creature on it, out to them.

"What is _this?_ I thought you said Gravity Falls was a calm, sleepy town in Oregon!"

"It is!" was her mother's protest. Courtney wasn't having it and raised the brochure up higher. "No it is not! Look at this--what is this thing? A Spooker-Wooker-Wop? _What?"_

Norman heard his grandma laugh from the side. He shot her a confused look. 

"Oh, Gravity Falls. What a place. It's definitely not what your parents described. It's anything but _calm_ there. Good luck."

Norman was slightly shocked for a moment. Was what his soulmate telling him true? Talk of candy monsters, copy machines that copied people, and... evil gnomes? He thought his soulmate was just making up tall tales to make Gravity Falls sound more interesting. He never thought a place like that existed. He knew he shouldn't be so surprised, but it was just odd.

"Is that a zombie?" their mother gasped, though their dad didn't seem so surprised. 

"You tell me!" Courtney practically yelled. _'Well, her nice summer vacation is kind of down the drain now.'_

"Listen," Perry prompted, capturing both of his kids' attention. "It's not as bad as it sounds. Courtney, it's not like you're going anywhere where any of that stuff happens anyway, so stop complaining." 

"But-"

 _"Stop complaining._ And Norman, just stay away from the forest." he switched his gaze from Courtney to Norman, who wasn't interested in any forest before, but now he was. 

"Alright," he replied nonchalantly and Perry nodded.

"Okay, conversation done. We're going to have a fine summer, okay? Now enough free time, go pack." he ordered, walking away from the kitchen to go to the living room with Sandra.

Just as Norman was about to leave, his grandma snickered from the corner.

"You're going into that forest aren't you?"

He looked at her and shrugged. "I don't have that much of a rebellious streak, but it does sound pretty interesting. I might, depending."

"Just be careful, Norman. Now go pack before you end up doing it all the morning of the trip and forgetting everything you actually need."

Norman smiled and started heading upstairs. "Alright. And I will, don't worry!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lmao I'm so sorry. All that wait and then you get a short filler chapter. I'm such a good author.  
> But really, the interesting stuff happens next chapter, I swear! I've already started working on the next chapter! (though I'm still a slow updater. lmao I'm sorry qq)  
> If there're any mistakes, please tell me! I don't proofread my fics;;  
> (also, if anyone has seen So This Is Basically Gravity Falls by JelloApocalypse, then the mention of a "Spooker-Wooker-Wop" is a reference to that lol)


End file.
